Building a Small Pedalboard Rig

When gigging with my cover band The Here and Now, I typically am using a pretty large pedalboard setup. That band covers a lot of music from the 80's and 90's and therefore is very effects intensive. My main setup consists of a Pedaltrain Novo 32 board loaded with a Line 6 Helix LT, DigiTech Whammy DT, EHX Synth9, Friedman BE-OD, and a Shure Wireless. It's a great sounding setup, especially when running into my Vox AC15C1 amp. But sometimes taking out a rig this large is not feasible due to various reasons (stage size, etc.).

Pedals, board, power supply, and cables laid out and ready to go. 

Recently, I decided to build a smaller, more portable setup that I could use as a more "grab and go" type of setup. I wanted something small enough that I could take to rehearsals, jams, and studio sessions, yet still get a lot of the same tones and functionality that I can get with my larger board. Line 6 recently released a smaller version of the Helix called the HX Stomp. It's about the size of two regular sized pedals put together and has the same effects as the big Helix's, just less DSP (so you can't run as complex of rigs). I figured I could use this as the base of my small rig and then fill in with a couple other pedals that are more utilitarian. For the board, I choose the Pedaltrain Nano+. It's designed to hold anywhere from 4-6 pedals depending on size and comes with a great little carry bag. My initial selection of pedals to go along with the HX Stomp were my trusty TC Electronic Polytune Mini, an EHX Pitchfork (for changing tunings on the fly), and a TC Flashback Delay (even though the HX has tons of delays on tap, I wanted an extra one for basic always on slapback).

The HX Stomp requires quite a bit of amperage to operate so I wanted to get a power supply that would power it with all the other pedals. Until recently, just finding a power supply small to fit under a board the size of the Nano+ was a task in of itself. But with more and more pedals requiring more milliamps to operate, more supplies have been coming out to fit a wider range of setups. Enter the True Tone 1Spot CS6. This little wonder is small enough to fit under the Nano+ yet has enough juice to power even the most power hungry pedals.

The included template makes it easy to properly install the True Tone 1Spot 

CS6 Power Supply.

The CS6 comes with a template to make it easy to mount to the Nano+. You basically just position it to where you want it on the underside of the board, drill a couple of holes and then attach it to the board with three screws that are supplied with the unit. One thing I did not anticipate was the size of the screw heads. They are small, but when attached through the top of the board, do stick out a little. I ended up custom cutting the Velcro that goes across the two top rails of the pedalboard so that it does not go over top and bubble up over the screw heads.



Once the power supply was mounted it was time to mount the pedals and run all the wiring for power underneath. The CS6 has six power outlets (three per side). On one side you can configure each output with either 9/12 or 9/18 voltages using dip switches whereas the outlets on the other side are designed for pedals that use higher amperages (up to 500mA).


The power connector on the HX Stomp is smaller than most pedals and requires using a couple of adapters that are included with the CS6 to connect properly. To alleviate the need for the adapters I went with a cable I found on Amazon.com that was made for the barrel connector size the HX uses.




Here's the initial setup wired up and ready to go:



Not too long after I completed the build, I updated the setup a little. I switched the Pitch Fork out for a DigiTech The Drop pedal and I replaced the Flashback Delay with a DigiTech Whammy Ricochet. This setup was a closer match to the capabilities of my big board. Most recently I switched the Whammy Ricochet out for my Fulltone OCD. Even though the HX Stomp has a pretty decent OCD model in it, I find the original pedal to just have a little more mojo to it, especially since I can run it at 18 volts using the dip switch on the CS6 which opens up the headroom of the pedal a little more. I recently used this setup at a recording session and it sounded fantastic!